From Stephan’s blog in which he reveals a failed attempted to knock off Jerry Scott to open more slots on the comic page.:
Jerry writes the comic strips Zits (1,600 papers) and Baby Blues (900 papers).
And newspaper slots are hard to come by these days.
So I devised a plan.
It began with a “family vacation” to Morro Bay, California. That’s not too far from where Jerry lives.
Funny story. Makes me think anyone with a client list larger than Stephan’s should be wary. Actually, if one wanted to increase newspaper slots by nefarious means, Jerry’s not the one to go after. His partners Jim Borgman and Rick Kirkman could handily carry Zits and Baby Blues. The one that ought to be wary is Garry Trudeau. His stuff is topical – unfit for reruns and it’s so unique to him no one could take over his work.
Great story. I love the way Stephan Pastis writes his blog posts. I wish he would write more frequently.
Additionally, I agree that no one else can write Doonesbury
I think some guy tried to write Doonesbury years ago with this
strip called Bloom County. He was pretty good. I miss it.
I always felt Breathed was able to find his own voice after a few years into the strip. It was only similar to Doonesbury in the very beginning.